Yao Ming and the Fight Against Shark Fin Soup

As beloved as Yao Ming is to Houstonians, it's no match for the affection held for him in China. And the former Rockets basketball player is hoping that his high profile in his native country will encourage his fellow countrymen to stop consuming shark fin soup.

At a press conference earlier this week in Shanghai, Ming joined billionaire Richard Branson in an appeal to the Chinese, whose appetite for the delicacy has exploded in the last ten years -- conspicuous consumption at its most literal.

The soup, once seen as a powerful symbol of wealth and prestige, normally costs $100 a bowl. But with more sharks being slaughtered to feed Chinese demand, the soup has become "commonplace," according to CNN, thereby defeating the purpose of eating it.

But what's troubling about the rise in shark fin soup's popularity is the impact the demand is having upon an already fragile and endangered population. Tiger sharks, bull sharks, dusky sharks and many other species have been reduced to a mere 5 percent of their numbers since the 1970s, as 95 percent of these populations have been slaughtered. In the South China Sea alone, 83 percent of the shark population has been destroyed.

At highest risk is the hammerhead shark, which is considered "globally endangered," because of the high demand for its fin. Over 70 million sharks were slaughtered last year alone, their fins cut off and then thrown back into the water to die. Without its fin, the shark can't swim, and sinks to the bottom of the ocean where it suffers a prolonged, painful death from bleeding and suffocation.

Younger generations of Chinese join the fight against shark fin soup through video PSAs such as this one.

Ming has long fought prevailing Chinese tradition and urged his countrymen to consider how their appetite is destroying far more than just shark populations. His work has led to shark fin soup being banned in places like Hawaii, but his pleas seem to have fallen on deaf ears in China. Wrote the New York Times in 2005: "The Shark's Fin Association -- a group based in Hong Kong intent on blending flavorless shark fin with meat, greens and even herbal medicine -- said in effect that Mr. Yao should stick to basketball."

The prevailing sentiment in China -- as expressed in a recent article from the Jakarta Globe -- is that sharks are dangerous creatures, and killing them (inhumanely or not) is doing the world a service. "We human beings have to control the number of sharks as they are dangerous," one shop owner was quoted as saying in the paper. Another added: "Western people may not understand what shark's fin means to Chinese culture. People shouldn't criticize other people because they eat something Western people don't eat."

"Sharks have been around for nearly 400 million years playing vital roles in marine ecosystems, but at the current rate of overfishing driven by the demand for shark fin soup they could be wiped out in a single human generation," WildAid director Peter Knights was quoted as saying.

But while Yao Ming is busy fighting a battle in China, we have a war to wage at home, too: While the Chinese may be content to eat an entire species into extinction, the United States is its enabler, responsible for supplying a large amount of those shark fins ourselves.

And lest you think Houston isn't complicit in shark fin-related crimes, think again. You can find the "delicacy" at nearly a dozen restaurants throughout the city. But before you rush out to try some, remember: shark fin itself tastes like nothing and looks like the clear pus oozing from an open wound. That's right: It doesn't even taste good.

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First point: this article equivocates all sharks. Many of the sharks that get primetime exposure are apex predators - depletion of their numbers isn't necessarily as impactful to an ecosystem as a bottom feeder. And species like dogfish are plentiful. When describing shark populations, one should be mindful of which ecological niche they occupy.

Second: The primary objection isn't so much about consuming shark's fin (which would be a cultural indictment) but of the practice of finning - where the fishermen simply lop off the fin and discard the rest of the fish. Having to contend with a whole carcass drives up the cost of harvesting fins, and finning is what drove the price down, expanding the market.

The US has explicit laws banning finning. Initially signed into law by Clinton, and Obama, in January of this year, closed some loopholes.

Much the same reason anyone would prize or loathe sea cucumber, jellyfish, konnyaku, silken tofu, okra, kudzu, or tendon. But use of such imagery of infection serves to fuel the xenophobia inherent in some reader populations, where the definition of food serves to divide civilization from barbarity.